DOI issue:
Nr. 341 (October 1925)
DOI article:M'Cormick, William B.: Going to sea in art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19986#0013
mceRnACionAL
vases, on coins, on.seals of old-time seaport towns,
on tapestries, in the pages of illuminated manu-
scripts, as engravings, and in watercolor and oil
paintings innumerable. Stained glass makes con-
tributions to this study as do fourteenth-century
mosaics and paintings on china and tiles of a later
date. Authorities on the subject of ships and
their rigs have analyzed these representations and
explain them as individual examples of the vessels
of their time and use them, successively, to trace
the gradual improvement in form of hull, rigging
and sails up to the age of steam. The Bible, in the
narrative of the voyages of St. Paul (Acts xxvii),
contributes to our knowledge of ships and seaman-
ship, one sail mentioned coming straight down to
the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Except in the case of historical representations
or in the seals of old seaports it is always the
picturesque features of a vessel that have attracted
the attention and held the interest of the artist,
be he painter of vases, medallist, tapestry de-
signer, engraver or painter in watercolor or oil.
Various artists never thought of at all as "marine
painters" have contributed not a little to our
knowledge of old ships. Thus Mending's "Pil-
grimage of St. Ursula" in St. John's Hospital at
Bruges shows four views of contemporary vessels
and the ships in some of the paintings by Car-
paccio and Giorgione are noteworthy contribu-
tions to maritime history except when occasion-
ally they become too "artistic." Happily the
learned student in this field knows how to extract
the facts from the pardonable exaggerations.
Such Dutch painters of the seventeenth cen-
tury as Van der Velde, Van de Cappelle and even
Ruisdael and Cuyp have left pictures with correct
details of hull and rig. Claude-Joseph Vernet's
ships are first rate technically. I have in mind in
connection with him a shipwreck with one vessel
sinking in the foreground and another ashore at
the foot of a rocky height and another with an
Italian felucca under sail that are full of interesting
and exact details in the matter of sails and rigging.
In the eighteenth and through most of the nine-
teenth centuries English marine painters led the
world, Turner's ship pictures being notable for
October 1925
thirteen
vases, on coins, on.seals of old-time seaport towns,
on tapestries, in the pages of illuminated manu-
scripts, as engravings, and in watercolor and oil
paintings innumerable. Stained glass makes con-
tributions to this study as do fourteenth-century
mosaics and paintings on china and tiles of a later
date. Authorities on the subject of ships and
their rigs have analyzed these representations and
explain them as individual examples of the vessels
of their time and use them, successively, to trace
the gradual improvement in form of hull, rigging
and sails up to the age of steam. The Bible, in the
narrative of the voyages of St. Paul (Acts xxvii),
contributes to our knowledge of ships and seaman-
ship, one sail mentioned coming straight down to
the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Except in the case of historical representations
or in the seals of old seaports it is always the
picturesque features of a vessel that have attracted
the attention and held the interest of the artist,
be he painter of vases, medallist, tapestry de-
signer, engraver or painter in watercolor or oil.
Various artists never thought of at all as "marine
painters" have contributed not a little to our
knowledge of old ships. Thus Mending's "Pil-
grimage of St. Ursula" in St. John's Hospital at
Bruges shows four views of contemporary vessels
and the ships in some of the paintings by Car-
paccio and Giorgione are noteworthy contribu-
tions to maritime history except when occasion-
ally they become too "artistic." Happily the
learned student in this field knows how to extract
the facts from the pardonable exaggerations.
Such Dutch painters of the seventeenth cen-
tury as Van der Velde, Van de Cappelle and even
Ruisdael and Cuyp have left pictures with correct
details of hull and rig. Claude-Joseph Vernet's
ships are first rate technically. I have in mind in
connection with him a shipwreck with one vessel
sinking in the foreground and another ashore at
the foot of a rocky height and another with an
Italian felucca under sail that are full of interesting
and exact details in the matter of sails and rigging.
In the eighteenth and through most of the nine-
teenth centuries English marine painters led the
world, Turner's ship pictures being notable for
October 1925
thirteen